So
Stupid!
By Jen Wollner
“God saw all that He
had made, and it was very good…”
Genesis 1:31
“I’m
just a stupid little boy,” shouted my son as he stomped up the stairs to his
bedroom. He was angry with me and frustrated with himself. He had directly and intentionally
disobeyed me, and he wasn’t too happy with either of us in that moment. While
it made me sad that he didn’t follow my directions, it made me even sadder that
he was calling himself stupid. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was an
attention-getting tactic or a sincere belief in his heart. Did he really think
he was stupid just because he had made a bad choice? This kind of
heart-attitude concerned me.
A
few hours later, when he had calmed down and all but forgotten about the
incident, I called him over to talk. I told him it made me sad when I heard him
call himself stupid and I was sure it made God sad, too. I asked, “Why do you think God would be sad
to hear you say that about yourself?” After only a second of thought, he
answered, “Because He made me.”
We
all have some negative beliefs about ourselves, right? But, has it ever
occurred to us that when we call ourselves things like
“stupid,” “worthless,” or “ugly,” we are actually insulting our Creator? In a
sense, we’re saying that it’s His fault for making us this way. But, God
doesn’t make mistakes in how He creates anything. The truth is, God made us
intelligent, valuable and beautiful. And, when we choose to believe otherwise,
we not only sadden our God, but we also probably won’t fulfill the plan He has
for our life. As Christ-followers, what we believe about ourselves…our design
and our destiny…will greatly impact our choices in life. These choices will
either lead us closer to God’s will for us or further away.
No
matter how we choose to exert the free will God so graciously gave to us, let’s
be careful not to beat ourselves up in a way that causes us to believe we are
something we are not. No matter what we do, our true identity doesn’t change.
God still sees us, His redeemed children, the way He created us…“very good.”
GOING
DEEPER:
1. What negative “names” do you call yourself
when you make a mistake? What wrong heart-attitudes permeate your thoughts on a
regular basis?
2. Memorize our key verse for today, one of the
Further Reading verses or another verse of your choice that speaks truth into
these lies.
FURTHER
READING:
Jen
and her husband are busily parenting three elementary-aged children. She serves on the leadership team for
Mission: Hope, Oakwood’s orphan care ministry.
